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Monthly Archives: October 2010

With gift season looming, it’s a fine time for major websites to dutifully hand out plaudits and praise to the best gadgets, ensuring that no-one ends up with the electronic equivalent of an orange in their Christmas stocking…

This time, it is the turn of Know Your Mobile‘s fair readers to cast their vote on the winners (and losers) in the world of phones for 2010.

Entry is simple, just fill out this short survey to pin a virtual rosette onto the manufacturer, network, handset, developer, mobile game, and must-have accessory of the last year that you think deserves it most.

As if the warm fuzzy feeling from filling out a survey wasn’t enough, your entry makes you eligible for a prize draw to win a brand new Samsung Wave handset worth £290!

Well, what are you waiting for? The closing date for the survey is November 30th, whilst both award and Wave winners will be drawn on December 15th.

The ESPN Goals app sends the latest transfer news, highlights and videos of goals from the Premier League to mobile phones, usually at a cost of £3.99 per month. The basic service without video content is free, however.

Robin Ashton, the commercial director of ESPN Digital EMEA, said, “There has been a dramatic growth in mobile content in recent years. The Sony Ericsson collaboration offers another way we can deliver fans the Premier League anytime, anywhere, all season long.”

In addition, Sony Ericsson will be holding a competition in collaboration with talkSPORT Radio, offering XPERIA owners the chance to win a footballer’s salary.

Whilst much has been made of HTC’s flagship devices having screens large enough to hold a movie screening on and enough space-age tech inside to put a man on Mars, it’s easy to forget that they still make great mid-range phones.

The new HTC Gratia may seem familiar – it’s already been revealed as the ‘Aria’ in sunnier climes – but the mix of cutesy form factor and strong smartphone credentials will certainly see it heat up the mass market this winter.

Running on the latest version of Android the Gratia immediately endears with its slight dimensions of 103.8 x 57.7 x 11.7 mm, and no-one can level accusations of its 3.2-inch HVGA screen being too big, something that the Desire HD’s pocket-bursting 4.3-inch display is often found guilty of.

Looking past the 600MHz processor the Gratia is business as usual, with the HTC Sense interface buffed to a user-friendly sheen and all manner of Android accouterments making the device simple to set up for mail and messaging.

A 5-megapixel camera is a decent addition to the Gratia – albeit hampered a tad by the absence of a flash – whilst the device has seen a little boost in RAM over the Aria to keep proceedings running smoothly.

Due for release in European markets this November, the selection of cool colours, beefier RAM and Android 2.2 out of the gate all make a good argument for the Gratia to put its aluminium antecedent – the HTC Legend – out to pasture.

Samsung is still eager to push their Bada platform in the face of Android’s looming popularity and the phoenix-like (or zombie-like, we’re unsure as to which…) resurrection of Palm’s WebOS, and as such the Korean firm is opting for the good old fashioned bribe to lure consumers.

Shoppers purchasing any of the new, more affordable Wave devices (including the snazzy forthcoming Samsung Wave 723) get to download a selection of free games from big name publishers including EA and Ubisoft.

FIFA 10, Tetris Refresh, Spore Creatures and Assassin’s Creed II are all among the app freebies on offer.

However, Samsung isn’t made of free downloads, and so will only be permitting 250,000 downloads of the first three titles, whilst the first 300,000 quick enough to sneak up on Assassin’s Creed II will be able to snatch it.

This offer is also not eligible to those brave souls that ventured first into Bada’s uncharted waters and bought the Samsung Wave.

We think that affordable phones are a far more comfortable fit for Bada, and will doubtlessly see the Wave range become an even stronger proposition as time goes on.

Hot on the heels of the white HTC Desire and silver HTC Wildfire, it seems that the Taiwanese manufacturer has gone colourway crazy, now revealing a new dusky revamp of the HTC Legend.

Due in October, the black HTC Legend may pure a purely cosmetic twist, but this does mean that the unibody aluminium frame, smooth lines and stylish form factor of the Android original are on board and unchanged.

“We are always looking for ways to broaden the customer’s mobile experience,” said Florian Seiche, President of HTC EMEA. “We understand that our customers love to express themselves, whether it is through their music, fashion or their mobile phone. We work hard to provide a strong portfolio of mobile phones, to give our customers the variety and choice in terms of experience, look and feel, that they crave.”

Remember when the only colour that smartphones came in was black? Seems like so long ago…